From Boardroom to Bedroom: Work Engagement, Marital Issues and Behavioural Deficiency Among Career Women Academicians - Evidence from Southwest Nigeria
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The increasing participation of women in academia has positioned career women as critical human resources for university development in Nigeria, yet while they exhibit high work engagement characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption, anecdotal evidence suggests a spillover that manifests as marital issues and behavioural deficiency at home, a paradox that remains empirically unvalidated in Southwest Nigeria. The main purpose of this study was to examine the effect of work engagement on marital issues and behavioural deficiency among career women academicians in Southwest Nigeria, with institutional support as a moderating variable. The study adopted a quantitative cross-sectional survey design anchored on Work-Family Border Theory, Spillover Theory, Conservation of Resources Theory and Role Theory. The study area comprised six states and 18 senatorial districts with one major town/city hosting a university purposively selected per senatorial district. The population consisted of 15,940 married career women academicians (Lecturer II to Professor) determined through triangulation of Human Resource nominal rolls from 42 universities, National Universities Commission Statistical Digest (2023) and physical verification. The sample size of 390 was determined using Yamane (1967) formula at 5% margin of error, with 429 questionnaires distributed through multi-stage stratified, purposive, proportional and simple random sampling using Bowley’s proportional allocation across the 18 towns. Data were collected using validated scales: Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) by Schaufeli et al. (2022) for work engagement as independent variable, Dyadic Adjustment Scale by Fincham and Beach (2022) for marital issues as dependent variable 1, Role Overload and Absent Presence Scale by Williams et al. (2024) for behavioural deficiency as dependent variable 2, and Work-Life Support Scale by Kossek et al. (2023) for institutional support as moderating variable, all measured on 5-point Likert scale. Data were analysed using SPSS 27 and SmartPLS 4 with two-stage PLS-SEM, measurement model assessment and structural model assessment with 5,000 bootstrapping subsamples. Results showed high work engagement (M = 3.89, SD = 0.71), moderately high marital issues (M = 3.56, SD = 0.82) and behavioural deficiency (M = 3.42, SD = 0.79) and low institutional support (M = 2.84, SD = 0.94). The model explained 37.5% variance in marital issues (R² = 0.375, Q² = 0.211) and 34.1% variance in behavioural deficiency (R² = 0.341, Q² = 0.186). Work engagement had a significant positive effect on marital issues (β = 0.518, t = 10.157, p < 0.001, f² = 0.318) and on behavioural deficiency (β = 0.476, t = 8.814, p < 0.001, f² = 0.271). Institutional support significantly moderated and weakened the relationship between work engagement and marital issues (β = -0.192, t = 4.000, p < 0.001) and between work engagement and behavioural deficiency (β = -0.167, t = 3.630, p < 0.001). The study concludes that career women academicians are highly productive at work but experience significant marital and behavioural deficiencies due to resource depletion and role incompatibility, and that institutional support buffers this negative spillover, recommending gender-sensitive flexible work policies, crèche and counselling units, and inclusion of work-life balance index in NUC accreditation.
Author: Olaniyi Emmanuel Adegoke
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222795654
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